Steam Hardware
A place to discuss and support all Steam Hardware, including Steam Deck, Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and SteamOS in general.
As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title
The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Deck] - Steam Deck related.
[Machine] - Steam Machine related.
[Frame] - Steam Frame related.
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.
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Rules:
- Follow the rules of Sopuli
- Posts must be related to Steam Hardware or Steam OS in an obvious way.
- No piracy, there are other communities for that.
- Discussion of emulators are allowed, but no discussion on how to illegally acquire ROMs.
- This is a place of civil discussion, no trolling.
- Have fun.
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I feel like your negatives, while subjective are just completely meaningless to me, who would gladly buy this over anything else, especially considering the terrible battery life my Dualsense has had.
Not having RGB to me just seems good, no battery drain and stupid "gamer" styling.
Colour choice sure, but I would have picked black.
Offset sticks would mean I wouldn't be interested at all.
Console support is entirely meaningless to me, I guess not for everyone but Steam devices are already geared towards PC gaming so it should come as no surprise.
If you have a Steam Deck you should be aware the touch pads can be unbound if that is your preference, so any accidental touches are avoided.
And regarding the price that is the price of an Xbox or PS5 controller in my region already, What is the price for you?
I can't speak for triggers using different tech as I don't know enough (or care lets be honest) but I would've appreciated the adaptive trigger tech in this one, while underused I think it can be great, especially for driving games.
I feel like you are some sort of power user with a very strict preference, which you seem to make the mistake of thinking your average user is. I just want a controller that does the job and does it well, with some few requirements, like non offset sticks. I might enjoy adjustable sticks. but I will not be bothered by it not being there.
This one portion is the reality. This controller will work just fine, but still be one of the most expensive ones on the market. Enjoy, but know you’ve done no research and don’t really care about the outcome per your own admission.
I grew up with shitty third party controllers that ruined reputation of said off brand controllers, but times have changed. With how the steam software works you can use basically any controller in the world and configure it however you want with your pc games.. which is exactly why there’s no compelling reason to go with this model over any other so long as it’s a good controller and just works.
There’s countless stick layouts and choices for people with specific niches. That wasn’t a list of mine, just some potential ones. Most people don’t even know that common and cheap controllers exist with tension settings or adjustable triggers… but hey most people just follow the brand brainwash that advertising and echo chambers on the internet encourage.
This is way cheaper than the "Elite" Xbox controller and PS equivalent though? As stated in my region 100 usd is the rough price of a Dualsense or Xbox controller.
The only competitor with a touchpad I know of is the Dualsense, but the battery is trash and it has a mic and speaker which is more annoying than useful to me.
Valve has built a lot of trust with their hardware snd every indication is that is will be a very servicable device.
IMO people who are really only familiar with microsoft, sony, nintendo and valve controllers really are missing the world of amazing value out there with dozens of competing high quality devices with better features and often more reliable than a $200 xbox controller that develops a stuttering bumper button right after the 1 year warranty expires (or before, requiring a replacement that breaks again and again.) This isn't 1998 anymore, "generic" controllers are often better than the originals.
Anywho... There's 198 other controllers here than the three you mentioned. https://gamepadla.com/
The original steam controller really was the first one to have it. A niche of users are obsessed with the feature but no major manufacturer has come out and made a copy because it's just not a popular enough thing.
like I said in my other comment:
Effectively nobody went out and threw trackpads or touch controls on controllers. It just wasn't popular enough after the original steam controller. If you absolutely adore the touchpads on the deck and that's your reason for picking up a controller, this is the exclusive choice for you lol
Honestly would not have given any of the options you provided a second glance, I have looked, albeit briefly, at third party options. Every option you provided has the offset sticks which I don't want. The touchpad is a bonus, the Steam one a larger one at that - there's a ton of things you can do with them. You can even make your own console style radial menus for them.
Asymmetrical sticks are more popular. I really went all in on the xbox style after the 360... but there's a lot of options that aren't what I mentioned.
all of them:
https://gamepadla.com/?f=spec_physical_sticksymmetry%3Asymmetric&fo=1
Just the ones with TMR sticks, most of these are high cost options:
https://gamepadla.com/?f=spec_components_typesticks%3Atmr%3Bspec_physical_sticksymmetry%3Asymmetric&fo=1
$70 Gulikit TT Max is probably the closest thing, if TMR is a must anyway. I don't really see a difference between hall and TMR personally. 4 Rear paddles included that are optional, switch for triggers to be between long throw hall effect and short throw microswitches. Swappable buttons (extra set for the switch). Swappable thumbsticks. Swapple dpad. So many features i'm almost tempted, maybe i'll check out one of their asymmetric options. https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Controller-Switch-Ultra-Fast-Adjustable-Multi-functional/dp/B0GJ5HWKK6
My research is daily driving an og steam controller from day one. I have had some gripes and issues with it, and this seems like it fixed most of them. This is clearly an improvement over it. You don't need the features the steam controller brings. Fine. There's nothing wrong with that. Feel free to purchase any of the trillions of Xbox controller clones.